I've so enjoyed the "Strangest Thing You've Ever Caught" thread that I thought I'd start a related one--The Strangest Thing You've Ever Seen While Fishing." I'll begin with two offerings--one magical and the second macabre.

For the magical, I look back to a time, right at daylight, when I watched a mother mink ferry her kits (three of them) across the Nantahala River one by one. She carried them just like a cat carries kittens, swimming with her head high.

On the macabre side of things, years ago while fishing in Virginia's Smith River I spotted an oblong object in fairly deep water. As I got closer I realized it was a coffin. Presumably there had been some flooding which had undercut a cemetery somewhere upstream. I reported it to local authorities and never heard anything more.

Well Jim, nothing close to your 2 but while fishing Nolin Lake here in Ky, I was traveling up the lake when I saw a deer swimming right in the middle of the lake. I stopped to wait and see if it made it and it did.

Now I have to tell you that my thought was to assist if it needed but after it made it I thought that trying to help a deer to shore in the middle of a lake would have been a really bad idea.

Very odd seeing that thing in the middle of the lake though.

__________________

David

"My Biggest worry is that when I'm dead and gone, my wife will sell my fly-fishing gear for what I said I paid for it."

A couple of friends and I were in Yellowstone Park on our way to fish the Yellowstone at the buffalo ford. Traffic came to a complete stop. Cars were lined up as far forward and back as I could see. To our left was the river. To our right was a high rocky bluff. I noticed there was no traffic in the oncoming lane, and I assumed every thing was stopped while someone was looking at wildlife. Suddenly a guy comes bicycling down the oncoming lane going as fast as he could and looking over his shoulder. Twenty yards behind him about 15 or 20 buffalo are coming as fast as they could down the oncoming lane. They were trapped between the bluff and the traffic with no way out except right down the road. I hope the guy out ran them. Silvercreek

My strange sight was not so dramatic, scary, funny or tittilating but it was definitely memorable.

I was fishing the gorge of the West Prong of the Little Pigeon one rainy day when I came upon two men and a woman all fishing (not a normal sight on that stretch of river but not the strange site). As I was passing them to leapfrog on up stream, I happened to look over at the bank and there was a young woman curled up in a notch under a rock that just fit her. Reminded me of one of those hidden pictures in the Highlights magazine when I was a kid. Seeing her curled up there with an impish little grin gave the immediate impression of a wood nymph hiding out, watching the silly people go by waving sticks in the rain.

Although I've never "caught" anything unusual while fishing, things I've seen are much different.

I saw a sow grizzly and three cubs in the Lamar canyon of Yellowstone. She charged, we ran, she stopped within 15 yards of us - close enough that I could hear her "pop" her jaws. This one still gives me nightmares.

Closer to home, I've had white pipes flush right in front of me. I also had a washer go through the rinse cycle through a different white pipe - the pool I was in turned into a bubble bath.

Mine happened this past summer, on the Gunnison River, just prior to the salmonfly hatch. The flies hadn't started returning to the water yet, but were all in the grass along the banks. I saw a fairly large trout jump up onto the bank, mess around for a few seconds, then flop himself back into the water. I KNOW that trout jumped up there to grab a salmonfly

This one is pretty common I would imagine, but seeing a northern water snake with a very decent sized rainbow trout in its mouth on Bradley Fork was a sight to see. I heard spashing upstream and wondered what it was. Then it got closer and closer. The fish was putting up a good fight, but eventually the snake was able to crawl into a clump of branches on the bank to enjoy its meal.

On Slough Creek in YNP, I witnessed three coyotes take down a fawn. Lots of commotion upstream as they ran through the river, then across. The mother doe was too late. She tried to fight the coyotes off, but the kill had been made. The doe stayed by her fallen fawn the remainder of the time I fished. Came back the next day and she was still there.

Had a staredown with a moose on the Firehole in the Fountain Flats area. That wasn't much fun.

The strangest two things I have ever seen while fishing were both animals and both fearless of us.

The first was a few years back when I was 8 or 9 and my dad and I were bait fishing a local lake near our house that is surrounded by woods. We were fishing in a cove when a racoon walked down the hill to the bank and stared at us in clear daylight. It just so happened that we had minnows so we started throwing them to him and he would catch them and eat them. We couldnt stop laughing about it because we had never seen anything like it.

The second strange thing happened was on our smokies backpacking trip in July. We were fishing up a long pool when we saw something jump in the creek from about thirty yards away and start swimming toward us. We were all trying to guess what it was when it swam under my cousin's flyline and hopped up on a rock not ten feet away from any of us. It was a rabbit just sitting there trying to dry off. We couldn't believe that it did that right in front of us.

Also, I just got your new book for Christmas Mr. Casada and I think it is excellent. I like all of the pictures, information, and especially the history. Thanks again.